PH fostering ties with ‘non-traditional partners,’ Marcos says amid Iran envoy’s visit

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines should have more non-traditional partner countries, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told Iranian envoy Yousef Esmaeilzadeh on Thursday.

Marcos received the Iranian ambassador-designate in a courtesy call in Malacañan Palace where the two spoke about different venues for cooperation.

“The Philippines now is continuing to foster new partnerships between what we have come to call non-traditional partners. It is a lesson that we have learned from the pandemic when the time came when trade or all the exchanges had to stop for reasons of health and we realize that we have to build up the agricultural economy so that we can support at least as a foundation for the rest of the development of our economy,” Marcos told Esmaeilzadeh.

According to Marcos, the two countries’ transformation will be stabilized by many new partnerships, like the one that the Philippines shares with Iran.

“There is a lot of green space for us to begin our work and I hope that with your assumption of the duty as the ambassador that we will be able to explore many of these possibilities. And, hopefully, we will come to some specific and constructive arrangements for our two countries. I look forward to those discussions, Mr. Ambassador,” Marcos said.

One possible area of cooperation between the two countries was agriculture, said Esmaeilzadeh. He suggested the possibility of a barter deal with Iran sending the Philippines tropical fruits and fertilizer.

“This is our idea. We can do well to develop our relationship,” Marcos said,

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